""

Announcing our new charity partner, Be Free Young Carers

Published

There are approximately 12,000 young carers in Oxfordshire.

Saïd Business School, University of Oxford will proudly be working until 2025 with Oxfordshire’s only charity offering support to 8-17-year-olds acting as carers.

We will be supporting Be Free Young Carers through fundraising and volunteering and feel privileged to have the opportunity to extend our help to young people carrying such a great responsibility.

Our Dean, Professor Soumitra Dutta, said: ‘While we are a global business school with an international outlook, we are very much grounded within our local Oxford community.

‘With that in mind, I am delighted to welcome our new three-year partnership with Be Free Young Carers, a local charity supporting extraordinary children and young people in Oxfordshire who find themselves with caring responsibilities for a loved one.

‘These carers have an exceptional burden placed upon them and I look forward to seeing our School community come together over the next three years to help them carry it.’
 

""

Sarah Ellner and Anna Blas Luna, Charity team co-chairs, added: ‘Our School community chose Be Free Young Carers as our charity partner and we are truly excited to join its cause of providing critical support for young people across Oxfordshire.

‘We are looking forward to supporting the charity in its mission to raise awareness of the challenges young carers face, and helping it raise funds to support wellbeing, provide social and recreational opportunities, and contribute to young carers’ aspirational growth.’

Sabiene North, CEO of Be Free Young Carers, said it was ‘delighted’ by the support.

She said: ‘We are astounded our young carer charity has been chosen to be supported by a world-renowned business school.

‘There are approximately 12,000 young carers in Oxfordshire - at least two in every classroom. With the support of Saïd Business School, we will be able to support many more young carers, enable teachers to identify them, offer respite activities, and one-to-one emotional support, as well as increase our befriending proposition. We also plan to establish an employability programme.

‘We are a small charity but with a big heart and passionate to make every young carer’s voice heard in Oxfordshire. We are looking forward to working with Oxford Saïd’s community to raise awareness and funds to support Oxfordshire's young carers.’

The partnership with Be Free Young Carers follows the conclusion of three years’ support by the Business School for its previous partner, Homeless Oxfordshire, during which it raised just over £9,000 and its staff made gestures including clothing donations and creating a vegetable plot at one of the charity’s residences, among activities.